Last October, Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing in Los Angeles, and the group invited longtime buddy Peter Frampton onstage to perform a song. The response, Frampton says, was tumultuous: ''The audience sort of stood up and went berserk. The experience was very nice.''

It also shook him out of a funk, ''more like a devastation,'' that followed the April 1991 death of former Humble Pie bandmate Steve Marriott. The two musicians had formed a

new group, had a recording deal and were about to record a new album, but after Marriott's death, ''my heart wasn't in it. The zing was gone.''

Now, the guitarist says, the zing is back. Frampton, 41, has put together a band and is on tour (including a Tuesday stop in Orlando) - playing live ''to have some fun'' and toil on three compilation projects: one of his own work, another of Humble Pie and a collection from his first band, the Herd. The solo package also will include two of the new songs he had written with Marriott.

It has meant quite a bit of time spent traipsing through the past, but Frampton says the vault-sifting hasn't dampened his desire to return his recording career to the level achieved by his massive-selling 1976 live album, Frampton Comes Alive!

''That was one huge peak of my career - maybe the biggest, for all we know,'' he says. ''If it is, I'll be proud. It's part of my history, a legendary album. But I'll make a damned good try to make sure it's not.''